Knowing I was a fan of Landrovers a friend of mine asked if I knew who sings the song featured on their Freelander 2 advert. I hadn’t seen the advert but I found it on Land Rover’s website.

You might have seen the ad, it features sweeping shots of a city at night where a man in a Freelander is following a young lady in a hot air balloon. This is not your average tale of boy-meets-girl, girl rents hot air balloon, boy follows in 4×4 however. As the advert progresses they travel out into the countryside (taking playing hard-to-get a bit too far). They pass over mountain ranges and the like until she lands next to him. It’s actually a great advert, beautifully shot. The song has a very mellow vibe, just one man singing accompanied by an acoustic guitar. It reminds me of Dylan or perhaps a slightly more coherent Leonard Cohen.

A quick Google search turned up the name Jon Allen. Allen’s song “Going Home” soundtracks the advert and is available to download for free from his website.

It turns out the Jon grew up in a little town called Totnes which is not far from where I live. Totnes is exactly the kind of place you would expect to find a scruff young man strumming away at an acoustic guitar (if he couldn’t find his didgeridoo). Allen has supported Damien Rice and Jose Gonzalez which makes a lot of sense when you hear his music.

I contacted Allen to ask if he was paid in Landrovers and if so does he have a nice new Freelander 2 spare? So far he has failed to reply.